Building With Screens

There are a surprising variety of applications for outdoor screening. Constructed of a heavy mesh, outdoor screening shields areas from 90% of UV rays from the sun and protects areas from wind and weather. Screening can be mounted as fixed protection from the elements or mounted on rollers and hung so that it can be rolled up or down as needed.

Patio or portal screening hung vertically is probably the most common use and can be fabricated in seamless spans up to 26’ in width. Typically a single or multiple screens can be hung between patio supports to create a wall of protection or hung on side faces to shield more than one directional exposure. As fabric, screening can be cut and sewn to fit any space, tall or short, wide or narrow.

With a little imagination though, outdoor screening can be used to create outdoor rooms by screening in an entire patio area floor to ceiling, such that even a screen door can be built into the structure. On one house with a raised exterior deck patio on the second floor we fabricated screening to hang between posts on all sides in a pale stucco/adobe call we call Buckskin. For the roof of this deck, a great swathe of screening in a darker espresso color we call Buffalo is stretched above cross mounts to create a ceiling which protects from overhead sun during the hottest part of the day.

There is really no limit to what can be done with a little ingenuity. Build an outdoor room to extend living space, shield from sun and wind, create a warm weather outdoor space for entertaining. Exterior screening is flexible, comes in a variety of shades or color, shields from sun and wind and yet allows light through. The fabric is tough and durable, resists mold, insect damage and weathering, and is warrantied to last for years.